Saudi Detainee Is Released From Guantánamo Bay After 12 Years

By The Associated Press

Nov. 22, 2014

MIAMI — A Saudi citizen who spent the last 12 years detained at the American base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has been released, the Pentagon said Saturday, part of an effort to decrease the prison population there.

The detainee, Muhammed Murdi Issa al Zahrani, was sent to his homeland on the recommendation of a United States government board that has been re-evaluating the need to continue holding some of the prisoners, the Pentagon said in a written statement. He will take part in a Saudi program to rehabilitate militants.

Mr. Zahrani, who is about 45, had been held at Guantánamo since August 2002, according to military records. A report by the Periodic Review Board said he traveled to Afghanistan in 1999 and “almost certainly” joined Al Qaeda and trained in military tactics.

His lawyers, in a statement to the board, described him as a “middle-aged, ailing man who desperately wants to return to Saudi Arabia.” They said that his father died while he was in American custody and that “his only wish is to see his ailing mother before she passes away.”

The board cleared him in October for release, citing several factors, including his willingness to enter the rehabilitation program. He left Guantánamo on Friday.

Mr. Zahrani is the 13th prisoner to leave Guantánamo Bay this year and the seventh in the last two weeks. Officials have said more prisoners will be released in the coming weeks as part of a renewed effort to close the site, where 142 men are now held, including 73 already cleared for release.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A35 of the New York edition with the headline: Saudi Detainee Is Released From Guantánamo Bay After 12 Years. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe